Mr Alvarenga says he and Cordova made a pact that if one of them survived, they would visit the other one's family to tell the astonishing tale.

"I feel better now. I am more at peace because now I know what happened," Cordova's grieving mother Roselia Diaz said.

"Now I know what my son's last words were. That fills me with peace."

Mr Alvarenga made headlines when he washed up on far-flung Ebon Atoll in the remote Marshall Islands on January 30, 13 months after setting off from Mexico on a fishing trip.

Wearing only a pair of ragged underpants and sporting an unruly beard, he told authorities how he survived the 12,500-kilometre voyage across the Pacific in a seven-metre fibreglass boat.

Cordova's family say they do not blame Mr Alvarenga, who has risen to worldwide fame because of his story of survival.

Mr Alvarenga's attorney, Benedicto Pereira, says his client told Cordova's mother he could not throw her son's body overboard for three days, hoping against hope that Cordova might still awaken.

After the emotional meeting, Mr Alvarenga headed to the Mexican town of Chocohuital, where he lived for several years and has many fishermen friends with whom he plans to share memories of his odyssey.